The Unborn Child
by yeti of me
Summary: This will be an early tribute/dedication to Zac Efron! Happy birthay, Zac! Enjoy and R&R! P.S. I changed the ending to a happier one.


**The Unborn Child**

_Troy Bolton stood by his wife and held her hand tight. Gabriella Montez would soon be in labour. They were expecting their very first child in a few hours time. Troy stared at her longingly, using the back of his palm to stroke her forehead to wipe off her perspiration that had collected there, and at the same time brushing back a loose strand of her beautiful brunette curls. Her contractions were happening every one to two minutes – which only meant that she was giving birth soon. Her water bag would break any time now, and the amniotic fluid would be spilling out in any second._

_The next contraction came and while Gabriella clutched her belly with her free hand, Troy frowned at her at having his heart broken to see her in so much agony. She was drenched in her own perspiration, already tired for the past, what, hundreds of contractions. Her baby was due soon, and the couple could not wait until the birth of him, to end her suffering. They have already decided that their boy's name to be Trey, and they were extremely eager to see how he would look like. After the most recent contraction, Gabriella's tense body relaxed back into the vertical pillow she was propped up against, feeling breathless, taking deep breaths in order to regain her steady breaths. She was already too exhausted to speak, so she turned and looked up at Troy with an expectant look on her face._

_Trey was coming real soon._

_After the next contraction, her water bag finally gave way, unable to hold its contents anymore and seeped into the towel she was sitting on, on the hospital bed. Hastily, the nurses pushed her into another room where her gynecologist was at and they prepared her for labour. Troy never left her side, or let go of her hand. Instead, he clutched her hand as tight as ever, bracing her for the moment where she was to produce a miracle of life. She spread her legs wide to aid the birth and breathed hard to push Trey out. Troy planted kisses onto her temple from time to time, whispering soothing words into her ear to help her relax as she pushed._

"_I can see the head, dear," the mid-wife announced. "Just keep pushing and he'll be out in no time," she instructed._

_Gabriella did as she was told, pushing at three second intervals, resting longer when she got too weak and tired. "Alright, one last push, dear, and I promise you he'll be out," the mid-wife said, her hands cradling the back of the baby boy's head in both her arms. Gabriella gave it her all to the final push, and finally, Trey was born. Gabriella heaved a sigh a relief for having accomplished her task and laid her head back onto the pillow behind her, closing her eyes momentarily, resting. The mid-wife handed Troy his son after the cord was cut and tied. Troy's eyes welled up with joyous tears as he held his wailing baby boy for the first time. "He's beautiful," he croaked, unable to control his tears._

_Gabriella took over the boy and managed a wan smile and thanked her husband._

"_Thank you, Troy…"_

/

"Troy?"

Gabriella shook Troy gently at first. Upon seeing that he didn't budge, she whacked him on his arm.

"Troy!"

"Ouch!" Troy grumbled and rubbed his arm were she had hit him at, reluctantly opening his eyes to the real world.

"Troy, wake up, it's time for work. You'll be late again if you don't hurry," his wife warned.

"Yes, ma'am," Troy joked, receiving yet another playful slap from Gabriella.

The happy couple had been married for a year, and Gabriella was pregnant with their first child, who was not due yet for another five months. The bulge was still small, so she could still hide it well. She worked as a nurse at the local hospital, Mercy Hospital, as she has a caring, loving and compassionate personality, something Troy fell in love with the day they met. Gabriella was very busy, working late into the nights and sometimes taking up two shifts in a day, just to help in the hospital. Troy, however, was an engineer. He worked at the car company, helping the company to repair any old rusty vehicles. His basketball scholarship didn't work out, as he had to miss his final game to take care of Gabriella while she was down with an extremely bad case of the flu virus. He was immediately disqualified. But now that he thought of it, it was probably the best decision he had ever made, apart from marrying Gabriella. It saved him from a very difficult schedule of playing ball all the time.

"Mm, Brie, you won't believe what I dreamt of last night," he murmured into her ear in a low voice as he stood behind her, his long, muscled arms snaking around her waist and caressed her belly with their baby inside.

"What was it?" she asked, turning around to embrace him, keeping her hands locked at the nape of his neck.

Troy held her close and kissed her hair, inhaling the sweet scent of her citrus shampoo. He smiled softly and merely told her, "You gave birth to Trey."

She pulled back from the hug and looked up at him, utterly surprised. "Really…?" she ventured slowly, wanting to pry all the details from his pleasant dream from last night that may very well turn into reality in the near future.

"Really," he confirmed, dropping a kiss onto her lips then nuzzled her nose before filling her in with the recollections of his dream from last night.

Gabriella felt her heart flutter, from the way Troy used his words to describe his dream, to the gestures he made. It was as though Trey was already real. She let her hand crawl into his mob of messy chestnut hair, feeling the soft curls at the nape of his neck before she tiptoed to kiss him. "I love you, Troy," she told him before she left for the shower.

"I love you, too, baby," Troy proclaimed his love to her as he watched her retreating back, walking into the room.

/

Troy literally sprinted all the way to Mercy Hospital. He had just got a call from Taylor, Gabriella's colleague, saying that a kid kicked her in the stomach and caused her to pass out, and he didn't waste his time starting up his car, then stupidly getting stuck in traffic at this time of the day. He did the one and only thing he could think of, and that was to get to his wife as soon as possible. By the time he got to the hospital, Gabriella was already on a drip, resting on a hospital bed.

Troy slowly crept into her room, not wanting to wake and disturb her. Yet she detected his slightest movement and her eyes fluttered open as he took a seat beside her, taking her hand into his, caressing the back of her hand lovingly. "Hey," Troy sighed, looking up into Gabriella's eyes that were empty of any emotion.

When she didn't speak, a frown marred Troy's facial features. "I heard what happened," he husked, not wanting to ask about how the baby was, knowing she had most probably lost it, and not needing her to be feeling regretful, that this was all her fault. Another moment of silence and Troy dropped his gaze to look at the bed sheet.

"He's fine," she started, bringing Troy's eyes back to hers. "Thankfully the blow was not as deadly, considering the child was only five," she added, and made a pathetic attempt to smile.

Troy leaned forward in his chair to hold her close to his chest.

"Oh, Brie," he sighed into her hair in relief. "Thank goodness the both of you are alright," Troy pressed his lips softly into her curls, neither wanting to let go.

"The gynecologist confirmed it's a boy, and he's growing strong," Gabriella supplied, rubbing her hands up and down Troy's back as she planted a quick kiss on his neck.

He pulled away and looked straight into her eyes. They were both thinking about the same thing: Trey.

Gabriella could see Troy's eyes smiling as he leaned in to peck her on the lips, a small yet meaningful gesture to show his appreciation. "You're the best, Brie," he husked, both of them pressing their foreheads against each other, Troy's eyes crossing to the middle in a cute way that Gabriella giggled, giving him another kiss that he accepted.

"I try," she told him, before laying back onto the bed for some rest.

/

Troy lifted a stack of long pieces of cardboard, with Chad at the back and himself in front. They heaved the last stack to the rest of the pile onto the supplier truck and cleaned their hands by wiping them on their already dirty jeans. Troy lifted his left arm to wipe his perspiration that had collected on his forehead exhaustingly. At that moment, the bell rang for an hour of lunch break and everyone cleared the warehouse, except for the two of them. Troy plunged down onto one of the stools by the working table to catch his breath. Chad merely stood a few feet in front of him.

"So, how's Gabriella?" Chad asked, resting his hands on his hips while he lifted his head to face the ceiling fan, drying his perspiration, enjoying the man-made wind that blew down to the both of them.

"Ah, she's okay," Troy started, then confessed, "I'm so nervous, man."

"Fatherhood wasn't easy for me to accept, too," Chad shared. "When I knew Tay was going to have a baby, I passed out."

Troy burst out into heaps of chuckles. "Seriously?"

Chad nodded sheepishly and blushed.

"Hey, and I thought Chad Danforth was the strongest basketball playing in East High," Troy repeated what Chad used to say when they were in high school, when the both of them were basketball players for the Wildcats team.

"I was, and I still am," Chad amended, punching Troy lightly on his left bicep.

The two men shared some laughter, as they reminisced about their high school life which they also shared with Taylor Mckessie as well as with Gabriella.

"Don't sweat it, bro," Chad smiled affectionately at Troy. "You're going to be just fine."

"Yeah, I hope I will in due time," Troy added, as the two walked out of the warehouse to have some lunch before they have to return back to work again.

/

"Nurse," a patient called out. "Nurse, help me, help me!"

Gabriella had heard the patient from Room 1015. Her pleas for a nurse to attend to her drowned out the conversation she was having with her gynecologist, Dr. Sharpay Evans. Gabriella kindly excused herself before rushing into the room to check on her patient. Upon entering the room, she saw her fifteen-year-old patient, Nelly, double over in pain. Her hands clutched her injured leg, her face marred with a frown and wet with her tears. Nelly was admitted a few days earlier, when she broke her left leg when she fell from a cheerleader pyramid.

Gabriella went over to wipe her tears dry and clean away the beads of sweat forming on Nelly's forehead while she shushed her soothingly and massaged her leg slightly. Soon, the twinge of pain in Nelly's leg dispersed as she started to relax. Gabriella put a pack of painkillers on her bedside table.

"If the pain is too unbearable for you, just take these," Gabriella advised, nodding to the pills.

Nelly smiled at the nurse gratefully. "Thank you, Nurse Gabriella," she whispered it, still weak from overcoming her injury.

"Anytime, Nelly. Get well soon. I hope to see you out by next week. You're a brave and strong girl; I'm sure you'll make it," Gabriella touched her arm and encouraged her not to feel down about her injury.

"Hey, sweetheart," a man called from Nelly's door. "You alright?" he asked as he approached the girl with light footsteps.

"Hey, Dad," Nelly greeted her father, then answered his question with a nod, "I'm fine, Dad, don't worry."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Schmidt," Gabriella greeted with a warm smile that lit up her brown eyes, due to the fact that Nelly's father even bothered to visit his daughter for a while during his lunch break on a busy schedule.

Nelly's father merely thanked Gabriella, and she took this as her cue to head out, not wanting to interfere with the father-daughter time the two people were sharing. That only made her impatient for the arrival of her own child, now due in less than three months.

/

Dr. Sharpay Evans stood in the hallway, just before the right turn to enter the ward her patient was working at. She clutched the report in her hands, as nervous beads of perspiration stared to form on her upper lip. She pressed her lips together a little too tight and contemplated walking in to the ward to discuss her situation at that moment. As she turned on her heels to leave, deciding to leave the report until her patient's next appointment, she was caught by surprise by someone calling out to her.

"Dr. Evans!" Troy strode towards her, happy to see her as that would mean they would get to talk about the progress made by his wife and baby.

She swallowed and hid the report behind her back casually, looking up to face him, scared to answer what he was most likely to ask. She was too afraid to tell him now, so she decided to save it for next time.

"So, how's Gabriella doing with the baby?" Troy asked, making her cringe and freeze on the spot where they both walked into the ward where Gabriella was working.

"Well, let's talk about that when Gabriella finishes her work," she finally said, not knowing how to protect them both from the truth for the time being. "I would like to speak to the both of you together," she explained, and Troy nodded, moving away to look for his wife.

"Aw, hey, there's my baby girl," Troy husked into Gabriella's ear as he hugged her from behind, his arms wrapped protectively around her and his palms rubbed her belly soothingly.

Her hands rested on top of his and she turned her head to kiss him, but he twisted her around fully before he returned it, so as not to make her uncomfortable. He then grabbed her by the waist and nuzzled her nose with his, a bubble of laughter escaping from her lips. "I love you, Troy," she affirmed, intertwining her fingers with his beside their bodies, as they stared longingly into each other's eyes.

They headed for the lounge, hand in hand, with Dr. Evans, and they merely talked about their baby's progress, avoiding touching the topic of Gabriella's well-being. As she stifled a yawn, raising her arm to use the back of her hand to cover her agape mouth, Troy decided that the session has ended and they went back home, Gabriella falling asleep in the car ride.

/

She woke up in cold sweat. The baby was kicking and it hurt, as she clutched the bed sheets, crumpling it with the grips of her palms. When the kicking continued, she held her belly and groaned out in pain. She made a pathetic attempt to level her uneven, shallow breaths. Nausea hit her simultaneously, so her body unwillingly got up and moved to the toilet to empty the contents of her already empty stomach. Troy immediately leaped off the bed to kneel beside her, holding her hair back in one hand, rubbing her back with another. He didn't speak; he merely soothed her with calming 'shushes', feeling her body rack against his with uncontrollable sobs. It broke his heart to see her in so much suffering and he just wished he could take it all away. He automatically pulled her into an embrace, slowly stopping her tears from falling down her cheeks, as he wiped then away with the pads of his thumbs. She sniffled, then rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, both of them sat on the toilet floor. Troy never moved an inch. He didn't want to hurt her in any way.

While she recuperated from her morning sickness, she slowly stood up, with Troy's help, and they went back to the bed. Troy carefully helped Gabriella lie down sideways on the bed, with a pillow tenderly tucked under her belly for more of her comfort. She smiled faintly at his sweet gesture before her eyes fluttered shut. Troy grinned at the sight of his wife resting so peacefully, that is, until the baby kicks again. She awoke with pain once again; she had automatically held her tummy, trying to calm the fidgeting child inside of her. Troy rubbed her belly as well, hoping she would feel better. He kicked himself inwardly for not being able to do anything about her pain.

"Baby, I'm sorry," he sighed, resting his cheek gently on her big bump, now that they only had two months left for their baby boy's arrival.

She smiled meekly at the man who was lying on her stomach. Her fingers splayed into his soft chestnut hair, playing for it for a moment, before reassuring him, "It's okay, Troy, it doesn't really hurt anymore."

"Alright," Troy said simply and nodded, moving himself to cover her up to her shoulders with the duvet. Her lips curled upwards even more, grateful for his gesture as she quickly drifted off to sleep, the baby boy inside her evidently wearing her out. He grinned at her as he stroked her messy curls that were sprawled messily all over the bed, thinking how cute she looked right now, how sexy and beautiful she was, with his child. Their child. This was the only thought that drove him insanely ecstatic, at the same time making him so nervous and jittery at the fact that he was going to be a father soon. He maneuvered himself carefully to plant a soft, sweet kiss on her temple, and whispered into her ear nothing but three simple words yet those three words that meant the world to them both, "I love you."

/

"TROY!"

Troy heard his wife scream his name before he heard thumping on their wooden floor. His eyes ripped open as he realized what had happened. Looking beside him, the other side of the bed was empty. Frantically, he immediately flew out of the bedroom. Thundering down the stairs, he almost slipped on the messy trail of blood on the polished wood. Troy's stomach closed up upon catching that bloody sight of Gabriella lying at the foot of the stairs, sprawled in an awkward position, bleeding profusely and unconscious.

"Shit," he swore under his breath, lifting Gabriella into his arms before grabbing his car keys.

He sprinted out of the front door, not bothering to even shut the door. Carefully, he placed Gabriella into the passenger seat, and cringing as he saw her head roll lifelessly to her left, as if she were dead. Breathing heavily, he strapped her with shaky hands. Thereafter, he got into the driver's seat and sped away, heading to the nearest hospital.

Not even thinking, he stopped his vehicle right in front of the 'Accident and Emergency' doors. He scrambled out and unbuckled Gabriella, before he lifted her into his arms once again, rushing into the A&E room. Once inside, he yelled, "Help! We have an emergency!"

A nurse walking by with a clipboard accessed the scene within milliseconds and hastily led Troy to one of the isolated beds that were vacant. Just as Troy lay her down on the bed, Gabriella's blood seeped through into the clean sheets, creating a bloody mess. The doctors and nurses on that shift spilled into that tiny space covered up by opaque plastic partitions. In less than a second, the nurses pushed the bed towards the nearest available operating room and ripped her clothing off. Only a doctor and a few nurses were left in the room. The doctor got ready to perform his task, putting on his rubber gloves, while the nurses checked what her blood type was.

"She's an 'O'," one of the nurses said.

As if on cue, the other nurse dashed out of the room and ran as quick as her short legs could carry her to bring back the necessary bag of blood. The other two nurses dressed her appropriately for the operation. One doctor came in – it was Dr. Sharpay Evans. Finally, a face Troy was familiar with! However, he was only a little calmer than before. All Troy could do was to stand at the side, his feet rooted to the floor, unable to speak as the two doctors exchanged private words. His heart was beating so fast, it was as though it was going to explode out of his chest at any point in time.

"Mr. Bolton, we're just going to abort the child and try our best to save your wife," the other male doctor informed him, instead of saying it as a question to ask for his permission. Troy's heart stopped beating. This could only mean one thing. Trey was already dead. Troy swayed like a piece of seaweed that was submerged underwater, feeling lightheaded. He swallowed the grapefruit in his throat before he focused on his breathing to calm him down. His tears cascaded down his cheeks as he picked up all his courage and went to Gabriella to hold her hand.

Dr. Sharpay Evans looked away just as Troy met her gaze and that made Troy more nervous. The nurse had returned from her trip and they quickly connected the blood to her, together with the oxygen mask and the cardiac monitor to check her heart rate throughout the surgery. Dr. Evans contemplated letting Troy in with the news she had wanted to inform his about a month ago. She had avoided the topic for way too long now; it was time he should know.

Holding up the clipboard and scribbling a few details in, Dr. Evans finally told Troy, "I'm sorry, Mr. Bolton, but we will do our best to save Mrs. Bolton. I have been wanting to tell you for the past month that your wife's heart had been deteriorating with each passing day as she carried the baby. She may not even survive if she had waited till full-term and give birth then."

"I promise you we will do our best to save her," Dr. Evans reassured Troy, but added, "But I'm extremely sorry if we fail. I'm sorry I didn't have the guts to let you both know. You can blame me for everything. I really hope she makes it through this."

Troy was speechless. He still managed out unnecessarily, "Trey?"

The male doctor who already had his devices in Gabriella's uterus had confirmed his answer by merely apologizing. With that, more water and blood spilled out of Gabriella. The doctor bit his lip. This job was going to be messy. He put his instruments down on the tray momentarily and asked Troy if he wanted the baby to be cut into pieces before removal or not. Troy almost threw up in his mouth. "Anything but that," Troy croaked, his heart having been already torn from his chest.

Taking a deep breath, the doctor nodded before picking up new sets of instruments and gently sliced open Gabriella's abdomen. Troy held his breath, not wanting to see the seven-month-old child that was in there. Slowly, the doctor put his hands into Gabriella and pulled out an underdeveloped foetus. He was almost developed, almost ready to be delivered. But now he was brought out without a pulse. The doctor cut the umbilical cord and placed the baby onto a metal tray. Troy noticed his wife's stomach flatten, as the doctor stitched the cut he had made slowly and carefully.

Troy couldn't even look at Trey, for he focused his attention on Gabriella. Just at the last stitches were being done and snipped to perfection, Gabriella's heart rate begun to slow… to a complete stop. The monitor beeped, portraying only 'zeros' and a straight horizontal line on the screen. Troy fingers reflexively tighten around his wife's cold ones. He brought her hand to his lips and touched them briefly before he shrieked, "Please, Brie! Please don't leave me!"

The doctor pulled out the defibrillators and tried at 200 volts, but to no avail. He increased 50 for every attempt in reviving Gabriella, only to meet with failure and no sign of success. Everyone in the room was losing hope. Troy was trembling from head to toe. He shook his wife, hoping she would wake up and kept calling her while the doctor tried to revive her.

"GABRIELLA!"

/

Troy sat on the cold plastic chair, looking down onto the floor. His eyes were already bloodshot from crying excessively due to his loss. He played with his fingers while shifting his weight as Dr. Evans sat down beside him. "I'm sorry, Troy," was all she could say.

Shaking his head, he felt more tears drip from his eyes and onto the floor. Troy sighed heavily and closed his eyes. His body racked with his sobs and Dr. Evans put a hand on his back and rubbed it, attempting to comfort him, but failing to do so, for he cried harder. After a couple of hours more, the red light of the operating theatre went off and the doors flew open. The male doctor walked out, his perspiration drenching him through. Troy leaped up from his seat to bombard the doctor with questions concerning his wife.

"I did everything I could," the doctor merely sighed.

Nurses pushed a bed out from the room, with his wife lying in it, the sheets pulled to her chest. Heaving out a huge sigh of relieve, Troy ran over to his wife and held her hand, following the nurses up to her room, after thanking both doctors.

/

A couple of days later, Troy entered Gabriella's room with a knock, and noticed that she was still asleep. For the past few days she had been sedated to prevent her from waking up while her body recuperated, only to have it removed today. All of a sudden, her eyes fluttered open, trying to get used to the bright light in the room. He pulled a chair to sit beside her, reaching out for her hand and drawing invisible circles on her soft skin.

"Hey," he greeted her.

He kissed the back of her hand. Both of them sat in silence while Gabriella registered where she was.

"Troy, where am I?" a small voice asked.

"You're in the hospital, baby," he answered her gently. "You've been resting here for a few days."

She nodded, and then her hands reflexively went to her stomach, which was now flat. Suddenly, it dawned on her that something was amiss.

"Where's Trey? Can I see him?"

This was the one question Troy never wanted to hear. He gulped and stood up, and then encompassed Gabriella into his strong arms. "He never made it, Brie. I'm sorry," he whispered into her ear, hoping that she would accept reality as it is.

Troy could only feel her arms tightened around him as they stayed that way, releasing all their hurt while staining each other with their tears. Troy stroked his wife's hair, pressing his lips on her forehead before pulling away to be faced with another question from her, "Why?"

All he could do was to tell her the painful truth.

/

After the incident, Troy and Gabriella never thought about having children anymore. They were partly paranoid, at the same time Troy was partly afraid that he would lose Gabriella again, for her heart has weakened. They only focused on each other, and planned to travel the world to enjoy time with each other. A part of them still wanted to try and make another baby, but their fears took over and they never did. However, the couple's love for each other only grew stronger. They were more appreciative of live. It was funny how an unborn child could change so much between them.

From that day on, Troy made Gabriella quit her job as a nurse and only worked part-time as a kindergarten teacher. That way, it was less tiring as she had to deal with little kids, instead of patients, as the inability of having Trey made her appreciate other children. She calls them 'beautiful miracles'. Troy, on the other hand, kept his job and were still best buddies with Chad. Chad made sure they never touched on the sensitive topic.

Other than lacking one member from the family, whatever that went on in the house still went on as usual.

"Troy," Gabriella called for him late at night, as they both lay awake in bed.

"Mmm?" came his reply.

"Troy, can I ask you a question?"

Furrowing his brows together, he thought about what kind of question she would ask tonight. These few nights they were unable to catch enough sleep, for they were a couple of sleepless nights for them both. They would toss and turn in bed, or talk to each other about other stuff, to soon bore themselves to be able to drift off to sleep.

They had been lying in bed for more than an hour now and both were wide awake. After a few moments of silence, Troy flipped over to lie on his back to look the blank ceiling before he answered, "Sure, Brie. What is it?"

He felt the bed vibrate slightly as she fidgeted on the bed, deciding on whether to ask Troy the question or not. Troy moved closer to her, pulling her into his arms for they both laid there, her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Troy's lips automatically found her temple. Gabriella then tilted her head up to stare at Troy right in the eye. He could see she had a huge genuine smile playing at her lips.

"Have you ever thought about an adoption?"

**Author's Note:**

**Okay, I hope all of you enjoyed it! Also, if anyone of you want to read the alternative ending, the one that would probably make some of you cry (well, I did), please let me know by either requesting it by reviewing or just PM me. Thank you all so much!**

**Happy early birthday, Zac! :D**


End file.
